In Laura Amussen's recent exhibition,
nature provided relief from the
pressures of an increasingly stressful
world. The works in this intimate,
meditative installation were formed
from twigs, leaves, reeds, moss,
and seeds. The walls were painted a
dark red-brown color, the earthiness
reinforced by low lighting focused
only on the objects.
"Nourish" opened with a quotation
from the writer and poet Brian
Andreas: "These are the days I drop
words of comfort on myself like
falling leaves and remember that it
is enough to be taken care of by
myself." For transcendentalist Henry
David Thoreau, nature is an expression
of the divine and a way to understand
the spiritual; art is nature
combined with the will of human
beings. In an increasingly complicated
world, when technology provides
advances but also exerts
ever more pressure on individuals,
Amussen follows this approach, seeking a path that restores the value
of time and contemplation....see the entire review in the print version of January/February's Sculpture magazine.

Simultaneously delicate and monumental,
familiar and inexplicably
strange, Diana Al-Hadid's work draws
on an astounding range of cultural
references, only some of which are
visible to the naked eye. Fragments
of images from paintings, often of
biblical subjects, as well as allusions
to literature, history, architecture,
and science, all invest her sculpture
with a backstory. It's a complicated
tale, combining Middle Eastern and
(mostly) Western allusions and
iconography to recontextualize the
known in new ways.
Al-Hadid is one of the most inventive
and materially experimental
artists of her generation, but her
trademark has become visually
delicate, "decayed" structures, sometimes
quite large, built of drips and
poured skeins of polymer gypsum--
essentially, plaster modified with
additives that make it stronger and
more flexible....see the entire review in the print version of January/February's Sculpture magazine.

Washington, DC:
Foon Sham -
American University Museum at
the Katzen Arts Center

by Danielle O'Steen

Foon Sham's sculptures evoke a
myriad of forms--towers, vessels,
baskets, grottoes, mountains, and
even tornadoes. Often spiraling
upward or outward, his works are
built with layered wood, and they
are participatory. Since the 1990s,
he has created structures that invite
viewers into intimate, light-dappled,
and wood-scented spaces. Part of
the thrill of his work is entering it--
a sometimes acrobatic feat when
faced with low, jagged passageways.
The reward for exploration is a view
of complex, textured interiors that
open skyward. The experience offers
a romantic encounter with wood,
which Sham makes the star of his
work.
"Escape," curated by Laura Roulet,
featured three recent, large-scale
works....see the entire review in the print version of January/February's Sculpture magazine.

Foon Sham, Escape
I, Tunnel, 2016. Pine, 14 x 62 x 5 ft.

New York:
"Politicizing Space" -
Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery,
John Jay College of Criminal Justice

by Jonathan Goodman

"Politicizing Space," curated by
Charlotta Kotik, took as its premise
the fact that space can be made
political by manmade interventions
and used to control human movement
and behavior. Kotik emphasized
the need to understand how this
stratagem works in light of Trump
administration policies such as the
Mexican border wall. The 11 artists
in the show addressed the subject
through both figurative and abstract
works, underscoring Kotik's assertion
that even nonobjective imagery can
be used to direct or restrict people.
Carin Riley's Caryatid I (2017) is a
complex, seemingly abstract rendering
of the female figures that support
Greek architecture. For Kotik, the
image implies how women in ancient
Greece could be seen as both sources
of strength and objects of suppression....see the entire review in the print version of January/February's Sculpture magazine.

David Goodman, Monolith,
2017. Acrylic on wood, 72 x 48 x 24 in.

New York:
Zheng Lu -
Sundaram Tagore Gallery

by Thalia Vrachopoulos

A first impression of Zheng Lu's recent
exhibition, "Undercurrent," brought
to mind the term "sublime." Set
against pristine white walls, huge
silvery waves seemed about to crash
through space. The obvious association
was to Hokusai's 19th-century
print The Great Wave off Kanagawa,
but stylistically, Zheng's waves have
more in common with Northern
Song black ink painting, adapted
in Japan as Sumi-e, whose sharply
delineated brushwork has been
compared to samurai sword strokes
by the prominent Asian scholar
Sherman E. Lee. One couldn't help but notice the sharp edges of the
waves breaking on the floor and
floating in the air, and it soon became
evident that the metal sculptures
depend, at least in part, on calligraphic
gesture. The interaction
of solid and void projected myriad
shadows, apparent chaos ordered
by art....see the entire review in the print version of January/February's Sculpture magazine.

Danish sculptor Tove Storch
app roaches sculpture as a way of
thinking about materials and looking
at space. Arguably, so do all sculptors,
but Storch harks back to
Minimalists and post-Minimalists
such as Donald Judd, Richard Serra,
and Jackie Winsor in her refusal to
allow thoughts about anything else
to intrude on her work. The content
of Storch's work is, quite simply,
space and stuff, presented within the
theater of the gallery. While the
work, as material and space, exists
regardless of its perception, as art, it
exists only in the viewer's immediate
reception of it. One experiences it
in the moment, like music, not over
time, like a philosophical argument.
In her first North American exhibition,
Storch resisted any temptation
to introduce viewers to her work
or to sum up her practice. Instead,
she presented one large piece that
directly engaged the architecture of
the gallery....see the entire review in the print version of January/February's Sculpture magazine.

Stella Maris, a colossal, open-ended
ship's hull made of discarded, rusted
iron components from an industrial
turbine, stood at the entrance to a
recent exhibition by veteran Israeli
sculptor Yaacov Dorchin. A confrontational
work in terms of size, bulk,
and apparent symbolism, Stella Maris
offers a clue to its meaning on the
base, which incorporates an iron Star
of David. Dorchin seems to be saying
that this mighty vessel (Israel), buffeted
by rough seas and high winds,
faces a political calamity, about to
sink to a salty demise. Alternatively,
the star could represent governmental
ballast, an ideology that keeps
the vessel afloat and on course.
Although Stella Maris challenges the
viewer's intellectual and emotional
faculties, it also provides an exceptional
aesthetic experience through
the rhythmic ebb and flow of its
curved cylinders and the warmth of
its reddish-brown patina....see the entire review in the print version of January/February's Sculpture magazine.

Yaacov Dorchin, Angel 1, 2013.
Iron, 80 x 55 x 30 cm.

Rotterdam:
Rhonda Zwillinger -
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

by Robert Preece

Rhonda Zwillinger's recent exhibition
was unexpectedly rattling. Ten
hours after the experience, I could
still feel the accompanying soundtrack.
The show opened a door that
I found myself not wanting to cross
because the situation was so troubling.
Though the work progressed
from tragedy toward acceptance
(my wishful thinking?), it offered
a disturbing story that deserves
attention.
Zwillinger, who was active in New
York City's East Village scene in the
mid-1970s and '80s, received widespread
attention for sculptures and
installations covered with beads
and faux precious stones. Both conceptually
strong and decorative,
these works combined craft techniques,
pop culture references,
and a visual language drawn from
Hollywood to make humorous
comments on social mores and
male/female relations. In the early
1990s, her life changed dramatically:
she had developed a hypersensitivity
to chemicals, including
those she worked with, a fact that
drastically altered her life and work.
She left New York and moved to
a small house on the edge of the
desert in Arizona....see the entire review in the print version of January/February's Sculpture magazine.